[…] the paper has published today, on the front page, an exclusive feature about the investigation on embezzlement in the coffee-cocoa trade titled: “The black book of the coffee-cocoa trade, how the baron's have pillaged the planters’ money.

The impact this report has had in the readership this morning has made public prosecutor Raymond Tchimou react. Under his orders and without a search warrant, criminal police officers have shown up at the Nouveau Courrier's offices with the goal, they said, to recover the source document used to write our article. After searching all the computers in the editorial offices, they finally left with a laptop instead of the famous document.

Following the unsuccessful search at Le Nouveau Courrier's offices, publisher Stéphane Guédé, managing editor Théophile Kouamouo and editor Saint Claver Oula were taken into police custody after refusing to reveal their sources.

The Nouveau Courrier is a new information daily that started publication in Côte d'Ivoire less than two months ago, on May 25th, with the intention of offering a fresh and in-depth perspective on current affairs. Managing editor Théophile Kouamouo is one of the first and most popular bloggers in Francophone Africa and the recipient, alongside his wife Nadine Tchaptchet-Kouamouo who is also a journalist, he's also been a recipient of a Rising Voices grant for his project Abidjan BlogCamps around blog trainings in Côte d'Ivoire. He is French citizen of Cameroonian origin and a former correspondent of the French daily Le Monde who has been based in Abidjan for over a decade, and is a well-respected journalist as well as a regular journalism lecturer in Côte d'Ivoire and elsewhere. A self-described serial web entrepreneur, one of his most successful internet endeavors has been the Ivorian blogging platform Ivoire-Blog.

Several bloggers and journalists have shown their support to Kouamouo and the rest of the Le Nouveau Courrier team through an online petition asking for their immediate release, as well as through Twitter and a Facebook group where they have shared updates about the case. Through that group we have learnt that the three journalists have been in police custody since Tuesday being, still pressured to reveal their sources, and that on Friday July 16th their case is to be heard by the judge. It seems they have being transferred to the MACA (Maison d'Arrêt Centrale D'Abidjan, Abidjan's Central Prison). Ivorian blogger Manasse Dehe, the creator of the Facebook group, wrote today:

It's not about releasing them anymore, that's the problem. It's about finding which fault they have committed, it's been already decided that they have to pay for something that they haven't done. Now the lawyers are fighting for what they're going to put on them, even the smallest infraction
Ask the Président of the Republic to react on your wall! Because he's a man of justice, he can get the 3 journalists of Le Nouveau Courrier released of this suffering that they don't deserve!!!!

Théophile Kouamouo, Saint-Clavier Oula, Stéphane Bahi are locked up in a cell that's packed. Waiting for their turn to see the judge. Oula is very weak. He started a hunger strike and is also refusing to take his medicine….

Since the news of their detention broke out on Tuesday, the journalists have been receiving numerous shows of support by colleagues and bloggers in Côte d'Ivoire and abroad.

Reporters Without Borders released a statement on Wednesday 14th saying that:

they had not seen such methods used by the authorities in Côte d’Ivoire for many years. The theft charge does not stand up. It should be borne in mind that protection of the confidentiality of sources is a fundamental principle of journalism, one that is particular appropriate for such a sensitive issue as corruption in the coffee and cocoa trade.

In the Facebook group some colleagues have pointed out that the first article in the official Code of Ethics for the Ivorian Journalist published by the Ministry of Communications (see original in French here) states the rights of journalists in Côte d'Ivoire:

The Ivorian citizen journalism portal Avenue225 [Fr], who has been following the affair since Tuesday, reported that the newspaper unions who have pledged to publish the rest of the investigative report on the coffee and cocoa business if they're not released today.